Hear New Age Methodist Leonard Sweet Speak at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis

Sweetened links:
Concordia Seminary Follow the link to iTunes U to hear Len speak.

Stand Firm

Monday, April 7, 2008
How the "Fates" of Pastor Todd Wilken and Leonard Sweet Are Related

Why is the LCMS offering the dais to Emerging Church and New Age advocate Leonard Sweet? Because we are now reaping what we have sown.

For the last several decades we have catered to whatever that particular decade’s name for “unbeliever” was, whether it was “seeker” or “postmodernist,” or some other name. In our zeal to save some, we’ve gradually, inextricably, changed our practice. As the decades slide by, few notice the almost imperceptible movement of the theologic tectonic plates, but they are ever moving, reshaping our doctrine.

In many churches, and in many districts, our practice has changed markedly. Now that change has altered our doctrine. We are seeing the result of that doctrinal shift. While the LCMS was once a confessional light in the world, we can no longer make that claim. We’re going the way of other synods before us. It is now fashionable to consort with undiscerning scholars, including those in the Emerging Church.

Concordia Seminary, St. Louis
MAY 2, 2007 (WEDNESDAY)
Day of Homiletical Reflection
Main Presenter: Dr. Leonard Sweet





The Useful Idiots in a Missouri District
From Rev. Ed Krueger:

Rostered Workers, Laity Attend "Church in Mission" Conference in Reno

Clergy, teachers and laypersons from the four Western Districts of The Lutheran Church?Missouri Synod (California-Nevada-Hawaii, Rocky Mountain, Pacific Southwest and the Northwest District) attended a three-day conference in Reno, Nevada, this past week. The goal was to listen to several viewpoints and to discuss with one another the role of clergy and laity in our mission to the lost.

Presentations were made by Dr. Larry Rast, Associate Professor of Historical Theology, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN; Dr. Leonard Sweet, currently the E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Drew University, Madison, NJ; and the Dr. Dale Meyer, former Lutheran Hour speaker, and President of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO.

Of particular interest were the comments made by Leonard Sweet who said the church is in the "perfect storm." The three weather patterns affecting Christianity are:

Post-modernity: people have a different world view than a generation ago.
Post-Christendom: people are spiritually minded but don't look to the church for the answers to their spiritual quest.
Post-round: the world has flattened out through the internet.

His suggestions for the church in this perfect storm are:

Quit complaining about the weather.
This isn't the time to do crisis management.
People are still people in need of comfort and hope.
The church needs to take some risks.
We must steer into the wind and not seek a safe harbor.
Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
Get "out of doors" where the action is.

Even More LCMS Sweet-Speak

Northwest District LCMS
Professional Church Worker Gathering
“The Great Salt Gathering”
Mark 9: 50b “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

Tuesday, November 11, 2008
10:00 AM – 1:00 PM REGISTRATION
1:00 PM – 1:15 PM Welcome & Announcements
1:15 PM – 2:15 PM Afternoon session 1 – Bob Newton
2:15 PM – 2:30 PM Break
2:30 PM – 3:45 PM Break-out Session 1 – on Bob’s
Presentation
3:45 PM – 4:00 PM Break
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM Afternoon Session 2 – Bob Newton
5:00 PM – 6:30 PM Dinner on your own
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM Break-out Session 2 - TBD

Wednesday, November 12, 2008
8:15 AM – 8:30 AM Announcements
8:30 AM – 9:15 AM Bible Study – Bob Newton
9:15 AM – 9:30 AM Break
9:30 AM – 11:30 AM Morning session - Leonard Sweet
11:30 AM – 1:00 PM Lunch on your own
1:00 PM – 2:15 PM Afternoon session - Leonard Sweet
2:15 PM – 2:30 PM Break
2:30 PM – 3:45 PM Break Out Session 2 – Table talk with
Leonard Sweet
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM Afternoon Session – President Kieschnick
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM Free Time
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM REGISTRATION
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM Celebration All Workers Banquet (Speaker:
Leonard Sweet)


***

GJ - WELSians - do not puff up your chests in pride. Yes, the WELS Church and Change Sweet conference was strangled in the cradle. But while you were out celebrating, Church and Change got itself on the official WELS website and registered people for their next conference. And you were believing and telling people - "Church and Change is no more. Gurgel, the man with the gifts of leadership, ended it. Amen. So be it." And the Issues in WELS people genuflected at the Sig Becker altar. Meanwhile, the saints under the altar said, "How long?"

Review - The Lord's Supper in the Theology of Martin Chemnitz

Martin Chemnitz, 1522-1586,
is the second most neglected theologian in the Lutheran Church.
The most neglected is Luther.

Logia has made the Teigne book available for free. The sainted Bjarne Wollan Teigen is the father of Norm Teigen. Here is a look at the extended family. Teigen wrote extensively on the Book of Concord. Google his name for a list of titles. I would buy his books before most of the others. I like the Bente Introductions to the Book of Concord, too.

The Lutheran Church has imploded because its leaders have deliberately quashed all attempts to be faithful to the Book of Concord and the Scriptures. As one ex-Lutheran told me, "Yes, they look carefully at the Scriptures, so they can do the opposite."

One example of this behavior is the reception of Teigen's book in the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, more commonly known as The Little Sect on the Prairie. The Little Sect has only two congregations of any size. ELSizens wonder if the sect will be around in 20 years.

The ELS once worked with the LCMS and stood up to the doctrinal errors of Missouri in an official pamphlet, long before Jack and Robert Preus began the move to split the old Synodical Conference. The Wisconsin sect, always pilloried by Missouri, finally had their chance to bully another group when WELS and the ELS broke with the LCMS. Wisconsin is tiny compared to Missouri. The ELS is roughly 10% the size of WELS, depending on whose statistics are disbelieved the most.

The ELS has been mistakenly viewed as a safe place for Missourians to land. In fact, Paul McCain, MDiv, said he saw the ELS that way when he was campaigning for Barry's election. McCain figured Bohlmann would have forced both of them out of the LCMS if Barry had lost the first contest.

Thanks to the WELS-ELS partnership, the Little Sect has become the finger-puppet of the Wisconsin faux-Lutherans. The ELS is run by three larger families who have worked out a way to stay in power without being doctrinally faithful or even apt to teach.

Bjarne's Book
The Chemnitz book is scholarly and very detailed. Each paragraph is filled with clear analysis about the history of every detail connected with the controversy. Teigen mastered all the historical data. This alone is a valuable contribution to Lutheran studies. Few have the time, ability, and resources to repeat his effort.

The Doctrinal Issue
Many in the old Synodical Conference (LCMS, WELS, ELS) taught that the elements of Holy Communion were not the Body and Blood of Christ until they were received by the communicant. This debate was raging in the ELS especially and discussed in Christian News in the late 1980's, when our family joined the Wisconsin sect.

Becker or Bjarne
The Teigen book made Wisconsin choose Sig Becker over Bjarne Teigen when the issue should have been, "What does God's Word say?" Becker was the WELS hero because he had a real doctorate and left Missouri, making them look good. Unfortunately, Becker was hopeless on two different issues - justification and the Lord's Supper. Both are connected and relate to the decline of the Lutheran Church in general, the ELS-WELS in particular.

Efficacy of the Word
The foundational issue in the Synodical Conference is its neglect and abandonment of the efficacy of the Word. In the Old Testament there is no difference between God's will and and God's Word. Isaiah 55:8-10 expresses this with great clarity. The efficacy of the Word is central to both Testaments. The Holy Spirit never works apart from the Word, the Word never apart from the Spirit. "That is sound doctrine," as Hoenecke wrote.

The ELS and WELS tried to end the debate about consecration by saying, "We are not sure when the elements are the Body and Blood of Christ." That is why so many articles were about the Moment of Consecration, an awkward term.

After the Consecration, are the elements on the altar the Body and Blood of Christ? The Teigen book's answer is clearly, "Yes, according to Chemnitz and the Book of Concord." The Wisconsin sect said, "We are not sure. Becker is the ruling norm on this issue."

Teigen, as a faithful theologian and good scholar, showed that the old, weird Synodical Conference position was wrong. The Wisconsin sect could not abide this, so they had Orvick and the ELS act as if they smelled a skunk. Their behavior toward Teigen and his family was disgraceful.

One of the clever techniques used by errorists was to howl about this conflict tearing up the church. Herman Otten, who published many articles on the topic, joined in the cries of pain. But doctrinal conflict is good, separating bad doctrine from sound doctrine.

But no, the era of compromise was established by Orvick. He was good at throwing a bone to one side and then to the other side. Pope John the Malefactor has carried on the tradition of obfuscating issues rather than addressing them. Thus the decline continues. Now that the efficacy of the Word has been permanently detached from all Lutheran doctrinal discussions, the Means of Grace are empty words and any foul error can rush in to dominate the next decade.

One Lutheran pastor asked me in Ft. Wayne about the issue, to see what I believed. I said, standing near copies of Thy Strong Word, "The efficacy of the Word means there is no issue. The Word consecrates the elements. They are the Body and Blood of Christ through the power of the Word."

Some Lessons To Be Learned
The Synodical Conference has been and continues to be damaged by hero-worship of the worst sort. So many human idols have been set up that no one can discuss a doctrinal issue without stepping on the toes of these plaster saints. Walther was weak on the efficacy of the Word, his Pietism leading him completely astray on justification. Walther's minion, Pieper, established UOJ with many bizarre statements that would have gotten a seminarian burned at the stake in better days. Sig Becker piled on the errors.

UOJ, consecration, and Church Growth have revealed the weakness of the Synodical Conference on the Biblical doctrine of the Word. Now the idolators make sure that no one can maneuver through the forest of plaster saints guarding their favorite false doctrine. The heresiarch Leonard Sweet spoke at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and the school's president listened in holy awe. Thus we have a video of the man who helped train bigot and race-baiter Jeremiah Wright sitting with the descendant of a Missouri leader and theologian.

The favorite hobby of the mini, micro, and nano sects is to deplore the doctrinal aberrations in the more established synods. Those errors are visiting and have already visited the tiniest and most works-righteous groups as well. The ELS would like everyone to believe they are the Synod of the Book of Concord. And yet, when one of their own professors wrote brilliantly about the Book of Concord, they put him into intellectual exile while falling at the feet of David Valleskey, whose only merit was his ability to deny or brag about his study at Fuller Seminary.

Voting Has Not Helped
Perhaps some feminists in the ELS are working for the right to vote. I would look around at what the men have voted into office, what the men have approved as doctrinal statements. I would not want to share in the blame.

A better way to select the ELS pope would be to toss a dart at a bedsheet covered with the names of qualified clergy (no felony arrests or DUIs). The ELS president-elect would not think of the office as his right but as a stroke of fortune. Other elections and appointments could be handled the same way, breaking the lock of a few families on the decisions of the synod, ending the tyranny of WELS.

The telescopic orthodoxy of WELS, seeing error at long distance but never at home, would have to end.

Lutherans Take Note

How lawsuits helped the Catholic church confront clergy sexual abuse

The author of this book is Timothy Lytton.

"The sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy is arguably the most acute crisis Catholicism has faced since the Reformation. The prevalence of clergy sexual abuse and its shocking cover-up by church officials have obscured the largely untold story of the tort system's remarkable success in bringing the scandal to light, focusing attention on the need for institutional reform, and spurring church leaders and public officials into action.

"Stories of the tort system as an engine of social justice are rare. Holding Bishops Accountable tells one such story by revealing how pleadings, discovery documents, and depositions fueled media coverage of the scandal. Timothy Lytton shows how the litigation strategy of plaintiffs' lawyers gave rise to a widespread belief that the real problem was not the actions of individual priests but rather the church's massive institutional failure. The book documents how church and government policymakers responded to the problem of clergy sexual abuse only under the pressure of private lawsuits.

"As Lytton deftly demonstrates, the lessons of clergy sexual abuse litigation give us reason to reconsider the case for tort reform and to look more closely at how tort litigation can enhance the performance of public and private policymaking institutions."

http://www.albanylaw.edu/lytton/

Posted by Norman Teigen

June 4, 1942 - Battle of Midway

“By any ordinary standard they were hopelessly outclassed. “They had no battleships, the enemy eleven. They had eight cruisers, the enemy twenty-three. They had three carriers (one of them crippled); the enemy had eight. Their shore defenses included guns from the turn of the century. “They knew little of war. None of the Navy pilots on one of their carriers had ever been in combat. Nor had any of the Army fliers. Of the Marines, 17 of 21 new pilots were just out of flight school - some with less than four hours’ flight time since then. Their enemy was brilliant, experienced and all-conquering. “They were tired, dead tired. The patrol plane crews, for instance, had been flying 15 hours a day, servicing their own planes, getting perhaps three hours’ sleep at night. “They had equipment problems. Some of their dive bombers couldn’t dive - the fabric came off the wings. Their torpedoes were slow and unreliable; the torpedo planes even worse. Yet they were up against the finest fighting plane in the world. “They took crushing losses - 15 out of 15 in one torpedo squadron … 21 out of 27 in a group of fighters … many, many more. “They had no right to win. Yet they did, and in doing so they changed the course of a war. More than that, they added a new name - Midway - to that small list that inspires men by shining example. Like Marathon, the Armada, the Marne, a few others, Midway showed that every once in a while ‘what must be’ need not be at all. Even against the greatest of odds, there is something in the human spirit - a magic blend of skill, faith and valor - that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory."

From Walter Lord's book Incredible Victory.

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MLS Veteran has left a new comment on your post "June 4, 1942 - Battle of Midway":

I read once that at the United States Naval War College they have tried to "war game" the Battle of Midway numerous times, using the same statistics as the actual battle, and the Japanese consistently win the battle.

Direct intervention on the part of God?

***

GJ - I was going to mention more details. The battle was a miracle. Everything went wrong for the Japanese. All the wrong decisions were made. One commentator said, "The Japanese seemed bewitched."

I think it was divinely guided, as all events are, but more obviously than most.

Another factor was this genius named Hector Bywater, a naval expert. He predicted that the confrontation between Japan and the West would take place at Midway. Bywater was murdered just before the war started, perhaps by Japanese agents.

Japanese naval strategy was dominated by British thinking because of previous associations, including the development of the new Dreadnought battleship after the Brits witnessed the Japanese whipping the Ruskies.

Bywater was still a battleship man, so that influenced the Japanese, even though they proved how carrier groups could project power much more effectively. Thus the Japanese were enchanted by Bywater theory when reality should have told them after Pearl Harbor that carriers were the primo and battlewagons secondo in war.

The Japanese used the carriers to protect the prized battleships, including their mega-disaster Yamato (beautiful but designed by the insane). Therefore, the carriers were vulnerable.

The innocent still think we were surprised by Pearl Harbor. We had already broken several codes and knew all about the attack. According to one book, we even knew each ship in the task force and followed the progress of the ships across the Pacific. Ships and their radios are quite noisy. The agent Tricycle (can't reveal why he was named that way) also warned the US. So did embassies of various sorts. FDR did nothing, so Pearl Harbor united the country against Japan. Germany declared war as well.

The American code-breaker who knew about Pearl also figured out Midway. Then they busted him and made him a pariah. We got the carriers to Midway without the Japanese knowing it.

Our men were incredibly brave at Midway. The movie is a classic, showing the scope of the battle in good detail.

Our soldiers are still the greatest in the world. I just had a Navy SEAL in class (three different classes). No one, except a few of his friends, knew he was one. He causally mentioned being in the Navy. The first time I taught him, he said he was a sniper in the Navy. I thought about that a while. No one shoots a rifle from a ship, unless it's a 16 inch battleship rifle. I got him to admit he was a SEAL. Another student was the first one to parachute into Afghanistan. He was a Ranger, but like the other student, just said he was "in the Army." Real heroes are modest.